End-to-end anastomosis is a surgical procedure for connecting an end of one hollow tissue structure to an end of another hollow tissue structure, such that the spaces within each hollow tissue structure are connected. End-to-end anastomosis is commonly performed in a microvascular context. Microvascular anastomosis is performed between ends of blood vessels in the course of, for example, reattaching severed body parts and/or transplanting organs. The blood vessels connected together often have different diameters, both of which are very small, on the order of one millimeter. Microvascular anastomosis is often performed by hand under a microscope, and is tedious and painstaking work. As a result, it can take many hours to complete just the microvascular anastomosis required to reconnect a severed body part or transplant an organ.
One attempt to provide a mechanism for performing such a microvascular anastomosis is the Microvascular Anastomotic Coupler System from Bio-Vascular, Inc. In this mechanism, an end of each vessel to be connected is everted over a ring with a forceps or similar instrument. Each ring includes a number of pins over which the vessel is everted. The rings are then pressed together, such that the pins on each ring enter recesses in the other ring, connecting the rings and holding the ends of the vessels together. However, this system is limited to use with two blood vessels having substantially the same diameter. Further, manual eversion of a blood vessel having a diameter on the order of one millimeter is difficult and painstaking, particularly when the eversion is to be substantially even around the circumference of the ring. Further, the rings provide a noncompliant anastomosis between the two vessels.